Update on Isotopic Reference Materials and Measurements for Nuclear Safeguards at IRMM

The European Commission's Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements is tasked for providing isotopic reference materials and measurments not only to the EU member states but even to the entire national safeguards community. This does not only include various types of specific and tailor made reference materials but also the development of new reference measurements methods and their implementation at various safeguard laboratories, e.g. to the IAEA using the EC/IAEA support program, to NBL (New Brunswick Laboratory), LLNL (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, both U.S.DOE) and CEA using the respective so-called "action sheets" and also to ITU (Institute for Transuranium Elements) within the Joint Research Centre (JRC). This paper gives an overview about the presently available nuclear isotopic reference materials and their applications as well as about ongoing projects for new materials and even plans for the future. Secondly an overview about mass spectrometric reference methods developed and utilized at IRMM will be given. This includes e.g. the double standard method for isotopic measurements using UF6 gas, for which a new mass spectrometer will be installed in 2010, furthermore the total evaporation and modified total evaporation methods for TIMS, the filament carburization technique for low-level TIMS, single uranium particle measurements, etc. As an example the joint development and implementation of the modified total evaporation technique will be reviewed. This technique is implemented within the nuclear safeguards community through a collaboration of some "key nuclear safeguards laboratories", namely NBL, IAEA/SAL, ITU and IRMM with Thermo Fisher Scientific (manufacturer of the TRITON TIMS), with IRMM taking the initiative and the leading role.

RICHTER Stephan;  AREGBE Yetunde;  JAKOPIC Rozle;  KUEHN Heinz;  TRUYENS Jan;  KRAIEM Monia;  VERBRUGGEN Andre;  BÜRGER S.; 

2011-01-26

Institute for Nuclear Materials Management (INMM)

JRC58481

http://www.inmm.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC58481,